


The Life and Times of Chloé Bourgeois

by agrestenoir



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bee Chloé Bourgeois | Queen Bee, Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Mentions of Adrien/Marinette, Post-Season/Series 01, Redemption, Self-Discovery, sexual awakening
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25926637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agrestenoir/pseuds/agrestenoir
Summary: Chloe often wonders who decided that she was deserving enough to receive the Bee Miraculous. Pollen tells her time and time again that it doesn’t matter—once you’re Chosen, nothing can change that save for dire circumstances. It doesn’t stop her from wondering though.If she ever gets the chance, she’d like to thank them.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	The Life and Times of Chloé Bourgeois

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for character death at bottom.

i.

The rules of the Bee Miraculous are simple:

1\. Your job is to protect the hive and ensure its survival. You’re the queen, the worker, and the drone.

2\. Bees give chase; they never run away.

3\. Remember that your stinger is lethal—to both you and your enemies.

Chloe promises to keep them in mind when she gets the Miraculous, but like most promises in her life, they tend to get broken.

* * *

ii.

Chloe often wonders who decided that she was deserving enough to receive the Bee Miraculous. Pollen tells her time and time again that it doesn’t matter—once you’re Chosen, nothing can change that save for dire circumstances. Having created a good percentage of Paris’s akumas, Chloe is sure she’s come close to “dire circumstances” before, but her kwami simply shakes her head and insists that Chloe is worrying for nothing.

“You were chosen for a reason,” Pollen tells her one late evening as she stands on the room of her father’s hotel, staring out over the lit Paris skyline. “You need to stop concerning yourself over what it is and work on living up to it.”

Chloe still wonders.

* * *

iii.

Meeting Ladybug and Chat Noir for the first time is a whirlwind of luck and destruction.

Chat Noir narrows his eyes the moment she whizzes into battle, knocking the akuma off the Eiffel Tower, like he’s trying to see right through her. The spark that lights up in his eyes tells her that he might have found something she doesn’t even know she was hiding. In the months following that first battle, she’ll wonder what he saw that night that told him she could be trusted, that let him believe they were meant to be friends.

(She’ll never get her answer.)

Ladybug, on the other hand, is a mess of red, black, and heat, exploding in the air like a firework, matching her hit for hit even after the akuma is defeated. The world spins madly on its orbit when Chloe takes to the air, her wings buzzing behind her—fast and furious—as she waits for Ladybug to calm down and listen to Chat Noir’s frantic reassurances that she wasn’t the enemy, that she was the help.

When the world finally rights itself, and explanations are given, Ladybug welcomes her begrudgingly, and Chloe tries not to think too much into it. For so long, Ladybug has been desperate to protect herself and her partner, so it’s only natural to be hesitant to new teammates, but it’s Chloe’s turn now, her duty as a Bee, to protect the hive.

This is the one tenant she never breaks.

* * *

iv.

Keeping her secret is hard enough, but there are things that she notices, things she doesn’t think she should, that make her wonder if her secret is even a secret at all.

As Queen Bee, when Chloe walks around like a skyscraper, head held high in the sky, and Chat Noir stares up at her like he knows just how to bring her down, pull her apart, piece by piece, until she’s nothing more than a pile of rubble. It’s how Marinette looks at her sometimes when they’re fighting, that soft expression that Chloe always catches out of the corner of her eye, like she could stop Chloe if she wanted but just chooses not to.

Chat Noir never mentions anything, but with a soft hand on her shoulder, he seems to know how to calm her down when her heart thunders too loudly, her words are more slurred than coherent, and everything turns slippery. Chloe values someone who can be her impulse control when she’s a hero, someone who reminds her of Adrien, but it’s starling, to think he knows her that well.

It scares her—more than she cares to admit.

There are nights when Chloe needs a moment to figure out her place in the world, struggling to balance the two lives she leads and the masks she wears—villain by day, hero by trade. Often times, she camps out on a longue chair on the roof of her father’s hotel as a civilian, staring at the stars as if they held all the answers—like she used to do when her mother first left—but then with a _whip_ and a _whoosh_ Ladybug comes sweeping in and interrupts her melancholy reminiscing.

They sit for hours as Chloe Bourgeois and Ladybug, a civilian and superhero, and talk about nothing and everything at once. Whether it’s their dreams and fears, school assignments or crushes, or even about the future, sometimes Chloe gets the feeling that Ladybug isn’t talking to some random girl on a rooftop but rather her friend, Queen Bee.

She wonders if Ladybug and Chat Noir know her true identity.

It’s another answer she’ll never get.

* * *

v.

When Chloe leaves school one day, Adrien stops her.

“You’re different,” he tells her.

And it’s confusing because she doesn’t think she’s changed that much. Sure, she’s made an effort not to create any more akumas to make her job and her team’s a little bit easier, but the spite and spirit she goes through life with haven’t vanished completely. If anything, maybe Chloe Bourgeois has become more of a mask than Queen Bee, but isn’t that the point?

So she tells Adrien, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“You don’t have to act like you’re not,” he continues, green eyes dark and deep, like he’s trying to convey everything he can’t say with a _look_. “You might find that people actually like the new you.”

Something inside her breaks, just a little bit, a piece of a heart she didn’t remember thawing out. She wants to tell him how grateful she is, how much she appreciates that he _noticed_ , because even though he’s always been her friend, she hasn’t always been his. He’s never had a reason to pay attention. But he has, and he’s gone ahead and reassured something she’s been so _worried_ about, something she’s desperate wanted, something she wants to _see_.

But she can’t.

“You’re being weird,” she says instead, because she won’t let Adrien Agreste get beyond the mask she wears.

He may not be a hero, but he is in her hive, and he is still hers.

So she never tells him.

(She never even gets to say thank you.)

* * *

vi.

Akuma battles are hard.

Each fight is like a chip in her glass, a dent or scratch against the walls she’s spent her whole life building. Eventually, they’ll break, and the whole world will come crashing in, but Chloe isn’t ready for that. Each akuma battle leaves her a little worse off, cracked and crumbling, as she desperately tries to hold everything together. Exhausted, worn on the edges and frayed at the strings, she flies home and curls up in her bed, even though she knows she can’t sleep.

It’s something that Ladybug and Chat Noir never talk about, something Pollen never told her. Fighting takes strength, and the battles are slowly draining hers.

She calls Sabrina at three in the morning one time, choking back tears from the nightmares. “Sab,” she says, and the line is silent aside from her quiet gasps.

Sabrina’s voice is hesitant, unsure. “Are.. you okay, Chloe?”

“Did I ever tell you I’m sorry?” Chloe rambles on, spilling out apologies that need to be said, things she’s so scared to say in the light and instead can hide in the darkness of night, under blankets and pillows, pretending that it’s all just a dream.

She’s so scared she’s going to run out of time because any fight could be her last, even if no one says it.

“I know,” Sabrina says suddenly, interrupting her apologies. “I’ve always known.”

“Oh?” Chloe’s voice is raspy and rough, like she can’t get enough air in.

“Chlo, has anyone told you that you’re different? You’ve changed over the last few months. Everyone can tell.”

Chloe cries herself back to sleep—this time for a different reason.

* * *

vii.

“We almost lost today.”

The three of them are sitting on the edge of the Eiffel Tower, legs wrapped around metal struts as they stare out over the city. The battle had been hard, with Chat Noir almost losing his Miraculous, and if Chloe hadn’t swooped in when she had, he might have died. Still shaken, even though they’d come out ahead, the three of them are huddled together, bodies pressed close, as they try to wipe the memories from their heads.

“I’m scared,” Chloe tells them, “that I’m running out of time. That something’s going to happen.”

Ladybug and Chat Noir, having done this for two years already, can only answer with tight smiles and even tighter embraces.

“You’ll be fine,” Ladybug assures her.

“We’ll protect you,” Chat Noir promises.

(But don’t they know that promises have a habit of breaking in Chloe’s life?)

“Protect me?” Chloe snorts, shaking her head. “Don’t you know that’s my job?”

There’s shaky laughter and wet smiles as they all try to pretend they aren’t crying.

Even though she’s afraid, Chloe doesn’t run away. Instead, she gives chase to the danger that makes her scream in her sleep, not because it’s her job, but because these stupid heroes are her hive, and she loves them.

(She still feels like she’s running out of time though. They did nothing to appease that.)

* * *

viii.

Chloe completes her journey of self-discovery in one week.

On Monday, she kisses Adrien and finds out that boys’ lips are wet and messy, especially when they’re startled, but they still feel soft and warm against hers.

On Tuesday, she kisses Marinette and finds out that girls’ lips taste like lip gloss and fruit, especially when they’re frozen in shock, but they’re still sweet and sticky.

On Wednesday, she decides that she likes them both, and by Thursday, she’s kissed half the people in her senior class just to be sure.

On Friday, she’s certain of who she is, and her mask as Chloe Bourgeois slips a little it.

But this time she learns that she doesn’t care.

“I know what love is,” she tells Adrien on Saturday, perched on the edge of his bed while he spins in circles on his desk chair.

“Oh really?” he asks her, quirking an eyebrow high.

And she really does. This week of learning who she is, discovering who she’s meant to be, has told her about others as well.

Love, she’s decided, is like a hit and run, where it’s _bang, bang, bang,_ and then you’re done. Once you find it, once it’s hit you, there’s no time to jump out of the way. You’re in a head-on collision with fate and destiny, in a mess of teenage dreams and feelings, but it’s still two people coming together. She knows she’d had a lot of love in her life, from her friends and her team (and, in another time and place, her family), and she knows it’s out there if she ever wants to reach for it.

“It’s the way you look at Marinette,” she finally says because she loves Adrien, and she wants her friend to reach for it too.

Adrien falls out of his chair, and Chloe laughs.

She tries to recall the last time she told her father she loved him and finds that she can’t.

(She can’t remember the last time he told her either.)

* * *

ix.

The end comes like she always thought it would.

Ladybug and Chat Noir are pinned down, akuma bearing over them, hands poised to pluck the Miraculous from their cold, dead bodies. Chloe is huddled against a brick wall, one wing crushed, and one arm broken, blood streaming down her face as easily as the tears. Heart pounding in her ears, she only has a few seconds to act, and already she knows she’s running out of time.

Her good hand tightens around her saber and thinks about using her Stinger, the last ditch effort tot protect the hive at the extent of the hive, then it’d be the end. And suddenly she wishes she’d thought of it sooner.

It was always going to come down to this, she realizes, ever since she found the Bee Miraculous in the middle of her bed. The moment she put the comb in her hair and changed, becoming a hero and a better person, the rest of her life was sealed. In the end, the Miraculous taught her hive and love, opened her eyes to the world and taught her to see everything she could do for it instead of everything it could do for her. It’s the price she has to pay.

Now a days, she’d give everything for her world, her friends, her _hive_.

So that’s what she does.

(“Remember that your stinger is lethal—to both you and your enemies,” Pollen tells her around a honeybun.

“I will,” Chloe promises.

But like most promises in her life, this one is sure to get broken too.)

“ _Miraculous Stinger!_ ” Her cry echoes through the deserted city of concrete, light, and love.

Her saber transformed in a flash of yellow light, nearly blinding her, but she doesn’t look to see what it becomes. Instead, she’s already rushing towards the akuma, plunging the weapon into its back, and feels something inside her _break_.

With the last of her strength, she raises her head and meets the horrified eyes of Ladybug and Chat Noir. “Thank you,” she tells them, voice airy and frail, like she was a wisp of smoke lost in the summer breeze.

“ _ **Chloe**_!” They cry out, but the world turns dark, and she doesn’t get to see, doesn’t get to hear—

_They know my name, It was my name, They know who I am, Wait, Wait, I have to go back, I have to stop, I need to KNOW who they are, I have so many questions—_

_I need to tell my father I love him, I need to make sure Adrien is happy, I need to find my mother, Please, No, Don’t do this—_

_No, No, No, give me more time, I need more time, Please, Please, PLEASE—_

_PLEASE, I have QUESTIONS, I need TO KNOW, I need to DO, Please, Please, Lemme have more TIME—_

Chloe Bourgeois dies.

She never gets her answers.

* * *

x.

Chloe often wonders who decided that she was deserving enough to receive the Bee Miraculous. Pollen tells her time and time again that it doesn’t matter—once you’re Chosen, nothing can change that save for dire circumstances. It doesn’t stop her from wondering though.

If she ever gets the chance, she’d like to thank them.

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: Chloé dies at the end of this fic.


End file.
